Did Mr. Munir our permanent UN representative got the sack for this action ?

Why should we abstain .. we oppose it and we should boldly give negative vote. Point finale.

Where is the Nawaz league on this issue ? I thought they kept the Pakistani interests nearest to the heart or .. it's like the statement of giving Indian's free unstinted visas to Pakistan !

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?...tinent&col=

India keen to avoid vote at IAEA board
(IANS)

27 July 2008 Print E-mail
NEW DELHI - India is trying to avoid a vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meet on August 1 even though one of its members, Pakistan, has circulated a letter marking its opposition to the safeguards agreement that New Delhi is planning to sign with the IAEA.

“We know of Pakistan's opposition, but we are still trying to avoid a voting at the meeting of the Board of Governors scheduled for next week,” an External Affairs Ministry official said here yesterday.

South Block is confident that there is ‘overwhelming’ support for the proposed Indian safeguard agreement among the IAEA members. The view has also been publicly shared by the United States.

Gregory Schulte, US ambassador to the IAEA, said he expected the India-specific safeguards agreement to be approved by the 35-member Board of Governors on August 1.

"I am expecting that the Board of Governors will approve this agreement on August 1. It is a sound agreement based upon established safeguards principles. This is an agreement that has benefits for everyone in the region, including India's neighbours," said Schulte in Vienna on Friday.

He added: “Basically India is committed to move into the non-proliferation mainstream and the safeguards agreement will allow India to put 14 of its 22 nuclear facilities under safeguards. In future all of India's civil reactors will come under safeguards and this is a benefit to all.”

India has to get the safeguards agreement approved and subsequently get a waiver from the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) before it can place the 123 agreement on civil nuclear energy agreement before the US Congress for approval.

It wants the nod from the US Congress before September to ensure it can sign the nuclear agreement with the US under the George W. Bush presidency.

The feedback from most other member countries of the IAEA has also been encouraging for India. But unlike the NSG, where decision is by consensus, the IAEA board has the provision for a vote, though the last time there was a vote it was two years back on Iran's nuclear programme.

"Having made their position public it may now be difficult for Pakistan not to ask for a vote," the official said. But he added that India was hopeful that countries like the US or China that have influence on Pakistan will be able to convince it not to go for a vote.

"Even if Pakistan abstains, it is good for us, though ideally we want the safeguards agreement to be approved by the board without a vote," the official said.

Nineteen countries are members of both the IAEA board as well as in the NSG. They are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and the US.

After 277 views .. still no comments .. suppose nobody really knows the issue here (just like me ) ?

Why our media is not putting pressure on "negative vote" ! I don't know :-

JANA & AHMED QURESHI we need your help in bringing this issue up !


http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/...id/385572/cs/1/

US will convince Pak not to vote against India at IAEA: Mulford
Malaysia Sun
Wednesday 23rd July, 2008
(ANI)

New Delhi/Washington, July 23 : The United States will convince Pakistan into not voting against the India-specific safeguards agreement when the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meets in Vienna, Austria, later this month or early next month to give its approval to it, said U.S. Ambassador to India, David C. Mulford.

Conveying this message through a phono with select media at the American Centre here from Washington, Ambassador Mulford said he was well aware of Islamabad's reservations on the pact and on the US-India civil nuclear cooperation agreement, and expressed conviction about the Bush Administration's ability to "persuade" Pakistan to cooperate on the matter.

"We will address Pakistan's role at the IAEA," he said.

Welcoming the support in the Indian Parliament for the US-India civil nuclear cooperation initiative, Ambassador Mulford said a day after the UPA Government had won the trust vote by 275 to 256 that: "We will work closely with Government of India in days ahead for rapid completion of the ratification process through IAEA, Nuclear Suppliers Group and US Congress."

"The United States has been ready, is geared up for the next steps (in realising the US-India civil nuclear cooperation agreement). We had a meeting here with the coordinating committee on Monday, and now, we will work across a broad front, India will also work across a broad front to see the next steps in the deal through," Mulford added.

He said that the U.S. is keen to present the bilateral legislation before the U.S. Congress in the early part of September, following a meeting of the IAEA and two meetings of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (IAEA)

When asked how he saw the deal panning out and whether New Delhi would be granted an unconditional waiver from the IAEA and the NSG vis-
…-vis NPT-related strictures, Ambassador Mulford said: "I don't think you should use the term `unconditional waiver'. We are working on a clean exemption draft that will go ahead and support the various theses that have been determined by both countries. We will be working for a consensus for a mov
ement forward. There is the 123 agreement, the IAEA India-specific safeguards, the two meetings of the NSG, and a determination to be made by the President (Bush) before we go before the U.S. Congress with this piece of legislation."

He said that following the meeting of the IAEA, he expected the NSG members to meet after a week to ten days. Thereafter, there would be an assessment made on whatever more was needed so that the matter comes up in the U.S. Congress in early September.

Mulford refused to comment on the stances that each country would adopt on the proposed agreement at the IAEA and the NSG, adding that India and the United States would address the concerns of each country individually, and he expected from the United States point of view, the focus would be in telling each country to see the larger picture - of effecting a growing relationship with India, one of the most progressive economies in the world.

On what China's role would be at the NSG deliberations, Ambassador Mulford admitted that Washington has had talks with the leadership in Beijing, and the latter has "agreed to review the documentation (related to the US-India civil nuclear deal)."

"I cannot speak on behalf of China, but I can say that China will look at the agreement and review its stance on it," Mulford said.

He also confirmed that there had been a telephonic conversation between Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the deal. He described it as a "friendly conversation" that focussed on all aspects of the proposed deal, and the next steps to be taken by both countries.

He said that Rice had told Mukherjee that she would be speaking to the leaderships of New Zealand and Australia, where she is visiting, and convince these two key NSG members to vote in favour of India.

He said that he expected India to send its ministers and officials to all IAEA and NSG countries to convince them about the deal and remove whatever concerns or reservations they had.

"Both countries would be actively pursuing the next steps. It would be a fully coordinated effort. The U.S. Congress is a sovereign body, capable of moving quickly. None can determine what it will do," Mulford said.

Replying to a question on whether the Bush Administration expected internal resistance to the deal, Mulford replied in the affirmative, but added: "We do expect a bipartisan majority to hold up in Congress."

The US Congress will have to meet before September when it breaks for session to meet only after the Presidential election process is completed in January next year.

The US has pledged to move forward on the civilian nuclear deal with India after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won a vote of confidence in the Parliament.

"We think that we can move forward with this," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said about the nuclear deal at the daily briefing on Tuesday.

"If their legislature lets it move forward, then we can do the same here, and then we'll be able to get this wrapped up," she elaborated. By Ashok Dixit

Our begayrat government won’t do a thing. These guys were looking to bring in Indians onto our strategic energy projects [Thar coal project]. What more can we expect from them?

Our intelligence agencies and military would put pressure on them to act, however the dilemma is, just what are we going to do? Shall we force a vote? Demand a similar deal? Sit idle and hope other nations will quash it?

Our begayrat government won’t do a thing. These guys were looking to bring in Indians onto our strategic energy projects [Thar coal project]. What more can we expect from them?

Our intelligence agencies and military would put pressure on them to act, however the dilemma is, just what are we going to do? Shall we force a vote? Demand a similar deal? Sit idle and hope other nations will quash it?

Apart from the media we should make hue & cry .. We should start signing petitions ...

More & more funda .. so that our Govt. can come out open to USA .. that look here our people are against us due to this action ...

We should be the one making noise ....

US prevented Pakistan from blocking India at IAEA


Thanks to the US, Pakistan's attempts to block India's efforts to secure a country-specific safeguards agreement from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have 'come to a grinding halt', a widely respected commentator wrote Monday.

Soon after Pakistan wrote a letter to the IAEA board seeking a vote on the issue, 'the US got moving and conveyed to Islamabad that Pakistan had already given a commitment, through a previous foreign secretary, that it will offer no opposition to the US pursuing India-specific exceptions at the IAEA and the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group),' Shireen M. Mazari wrote in The News.

As a result, the Pakistani foreign ministry 'was asked to stop all activities meant to counter India-US moves on safeguards and technology exports at the IAEA and the NSG respectively.

'The net result has been that all diplomatic efforts by Pakistan have come to a grinding halt and the special envoy's mission (to follow up on the letter) had to be aborted midway,' Mazari wrote in the article, headlined 'Pak N-diplomacy comes to a full stop'.

A former director general of think tank Institute of Strategic Studies, Mazari's views are considered to be a form of Pakistani nationalism.

According to Mazari, there were two reasons behind Pakistan letter to the IAEA.

'One, to expose those member states that have been holding forth on non-proliferation but would go along with making an exception to India; and, two, to see how many of Pakistan's Arab allies, who are presently members of the IAEA Board would vote.'

The US and India are seeking an agreement by consensus without putting the issue to vote.

In addition to the letter, the foreign secretary also wanted to send a letter to the NSG members asking them to adopt a criteria-based approach for sensitive technology transfers rather than country-based exceptions, Mazari wrote.

The third leg of the foreign ministry's strategy 'was to send an envoy - preferably a seasoned diplomat - to our ally China to get them to lend support to the Pakistani approach vis-a-vis the IAEA and the NSG'.

The US action came even as Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir was in New Delhi last week for talks with his Indian counterpart Shivshankar Menon for launching the fifth round of their composite dialogue process.

The US action came 'despite the fact that many Western IAEA and NSG members are firm adherents to the non-proliferation regime and are uncomfortable with the India-US nuclear deal - which is why the US and India do not want to put the safeguards agreement to vote in the IAEA,' Mazari wrote.

'It is important to remember that Pakistan has been signing the normal non-NPT member states' safeguards agreement with the IAEA, seeking no exit clauses or other exceptions.

'Interestingly, although the US has consistently and publicly stated that it will not sign a nuclear deal with Pakistan on similar lines to the India-US nuclear deal, Pakistan's new de jure foreign minister has naively sought to declare, like his predecessors, that Pakistan will seek such a deal,' Mazari added.

According to her, 'some outsiders' the present government has inducted into the foreign service 'have been intervening in foreign policy decisions. At international meets, they check and rewrite all speeches prepared by the ministry.

'They allegedly informed the foreign secretary that the ministry should stop focusing on China as Pakistan's major ally because now there was going to be a major reorientation towards the US and India.

'Perhaps that is why the prime minister has chosen to go to the US before visiting our ally in good times and bad, China. Could that also be the reason for negotiating with an Indian-owned (company) for the exploitation of Thar coal rather than the Chinese companies with whom Pakistan had been negotiating for the last few years?' Mazari wondered.

http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/...id/387265/cs/1/